


An Angel's Bargain

by misura



Category: Van Helsing (2004)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Community: smallfandomfest, Historical Inaccuracy, M/M, Past Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-19
Updated: 2013-05-19
Packaged: 2017-12-21 20:43:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/904704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"You killed me once already," he said. "Don't you think it's my turn now, Gabriel?"</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Angel's Bargain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Casey_Wolfe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Casey_Wolfe/gifts).



> prompt: _Van Helsing/Dracula, "You don't remember?" Gabriel doesn't remember the time in his life that included Dracula, when they were more than just lovers, but mates. Will he remember before it's too late?_ (wolfspirit07)

[Budapest, 1462]

Vlad woke up and knew there was someone in his room. It was pitch dark, so he couldn't actually _see_ (and whomever it was knew how to move quietly, so he couldn't actually _hear_ , either) but after years' of experience dodging assassins and various other foes, he'd developed a sixth sense for this kind of thing.

He would not have survived, else.

(His younger brother, alas, had been less fortunate or possibly just less of a quick study. He'd died, and for some reason, everybody seemed to think it was Vlad's fault. Relations with his father had never been the same, even though Vlad genuinely hadn't had anything to do with the whole thing.)

(He'd been responsible for the previous six attempts, true, but those had been so childishly inept that he'd assumed it to be obvious he hadn't really been trying to commit fratricide by proxy - he'd just been showing himself to be a good sport, no hard feelings about that poisoned wine from last night, and do let's try to get along as a family, shall we?)

(Some people were just so very _unreasonable_.)

His heartbeat sounded unnaturally loud. It was the only one he was able to hear, though.

_And that just figures, doesn't it? Make a bargain with the devil and get killed two days before you're getting the goods._

His mouth was dry. "Who's there?" His voice sounded calm enough, at least.

"Over here," someone said, softly, behind him.

He spun around - _too slow,_ a voice that sounded annoyingly much like his idiot brother's said. _Much too slow, brother dear._

"Gabriel," he said.

*  
[Castle Dracula, 1898]

 _A werewolf,_ Vlad thought. _He's become a werewolf._ Unexpected, that. Unwelcome, too.

Dangerous, possibly. _You can trust the devil to stick to the letter of his contract, but God will always find a way to cheat you, in the end._

"You killed me once already," he said. "Don't you think it's my turn now, Gabriel?"

Nothing. No change in the sound of Gabriel's heartbeats, no hint of any sort of emotion on his face. Like talking to a wall - _or a bride, possibly._ Vlad preferred to think of them as an experiment gone wrong, rather than anything so grave as a mistake. He tried to limit his mistakes to one a century.

"The Left Hand of God."

A sliver of moonlight, and a hint of the Change. There were possibilities there, if he chose to pursue them, but all of them would boil down to losing Gabriel. As a werewolf, Vlad might be able to control him, only it would be an uncomfortable, master-and-pet kind of control.

"We could be friends, instead. Partners." They had been, once. "More than friends."

*  
[Budapest, 1462]

"Christ."

"Such language," Gabriel said, lighting a candle. "Guilty conscience bothering you?"

Vlad felt light-headed. "I have nothing to feel guilty about." He had only ever done what needed to be done, what other people had driven him to. "Well, except for you."

The bed barely dipped as Gabriel sat down on it, as if he was all but weightless. "Seducing a priest sounds like a fairly serious offense."

"You're the one who seduced me," Vlad said. He wasn't a fool, after all. "And you're the one who's leaving tomorrow."

"Well, we all have to leave some time. You could always come along."

It was not a new argument. "No. And you're not a priest."

Gabriel arched an eyebrow at him. "You could still come along. I'm not the only one, you know."

"The only what?" Vlad asked, even though he rather thought he knew. He'd been careful, erasing his traces, burning the evidence, the papers. He'd killed both of the servants who'd helped him prepare the room for the summoning, and one more who might have seen something he shouldn't have.

Simply put, there was no way anyone could have known what he had done.

_Only me and the Devil. And God, apparently._

"The only assassin from the Church who will come for you," Gabriel said matter-of-factly.

Vlad almost told him not to worry, because in two days, he'd be pretty damn close to invulnerable. It wasn't a matter of trust, exactly. At least, it wasn't a matter of _distrusting_ Gabriel.

"Although I do hope I'm the only one around whom you'll let your guard down this much," Gabriel added. His body was hard and wiry against Vlad's. "I could kill you very easily right now, you know."

That really shouldn't be any kind of a turn-on, Vlad mused, and yet here he was. "Will you?" he asked.

"Some other time, perhaps." Gabriel's mouth was warm and wet and as hungry as his own.

*  
[Castle Dracula, 1898]

"Have I shocked you?" Vlad asked, with a small smile. "Really, Gabriel, do join the rest of us in the 19th century." _Do give me a sign how much of this is an act._

"Well, at least you've got good taste," Gabriel said, with a grin that was still familiar after all this time.

"Of course." According to his sources in Rome, Gabriel remembered nothing at all. He'd been found with Vlad's ring, and a scrap of parchment ripped off from dear old Dad's map, and no memories of how he'd come in possession of either.

_You saved the good doctor's creation because you sensed there was no evil in it. Four centuries ago, that didn't stay your hand, so why does it now? Did you truly forget, or do you only wish you had?_

"That said: no way in hell."

Gabriel _changed_ and swiped at him. Vlad wondered if he realized how unusual it was, to have that much control over the process, to be able to take the advantages without falling prey to the disadvantages. Probably not. Who would have told him, after all?

_Those who hunt monsters ..._

"Has nobody ever told you, Gabriel? Hell consists of nothing but other people. People who condemn you, simply for being what you are. People who look at you and only see a threat. A murderer. Isn't that what they're calling you, these days?"

"I can live with that."

 _For how long?_ Vlad didn't ask. The answer was in Gabriel's voice, in the pose of his little priest friend who was keeping a safe distance. Watching. Waiting. Working up his courage.

"Alone?" he asked instead. "I understand you, Gabriel. Better than anyone else."

Gabriel growled. "I don't think you do." He really did make for a magnificent wolf, Vlad reflected. God might be a sore loser, but Vlad couldn't find any fault with His sense of aesthetics.

"I'll give it all up," he offered. "My great plan. My children. For you." He might even mean it, he felt.

Funny, how some things just wouldn't die, even after four centuries.

"Killing you should do the trick just fine, too."

"You can't kill me."

"Then I guess I'll die trying," Gabriel said, and when he _changed_ , this time, Vlad knew he wouldn't change back, not until one of them was dead.

_Well. I suppose it might be fun to see the family again._


End file.
